1. Field
This invention relates to microfluidic devices. In particular, the invention relates to microfluidic devices and their uses and methods for culturing cells for extended periods of time.
2. Description of Related Art
Cell population heterogeneity poses a major obstacle to understanding complex processes that govern tissue-specific cellular responses, differentiation, and disease development. Averaged measurements of large numbers of cells often obscure the variable responses of individual or rare cells. New technologies for studying cellular heterogeneity at the single cell level under well-defined chemical environments are therefore of great interest in the study of cells (for example, stem cell fields).
The need for scalable single cell analysis is particularly acute in the study of hematopoietic stem cell (HSCs) growth and differentiation. The analyses of clonal cultures derived from single HSCs have been performed for a number of years and these have already provided some insights into the proliferation kinetics of the input cells, their in vitro responses to varying growth factor conditions, and their rapid loss ex vivo of the differentiation pattern that is typically preserved when they expand in vivo. Such experiments have shown that quiescence and delayed cell cycle entry correlate with higher potency (Brummendorf, TH. et al. J. Exp. Med. 188, 1117-1124 (1998); Audet, J. et al. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 80, 393-404 (2002)), that asymmetric cell divisions are features of HSCs with long-term hematopoietic activity (Ma, N. N. et al. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 80, 428-437 (2002)), and that the probability of HSCs executing a self-renewal decision in vitro is regulated by the types and concentrations of growth factors to which it is exposed (Ma, N. N. et al. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 80, 428-437 (2002); Pineault, N. et al. Leukemia 19, 636-643 (2005); Pineault, N. et al. Molecular and Cellular Biology 24, 1907-1917 (2004)). Recently, the study of HSCs using automated time-lapse imaging and, in some cases, micropatterned substrates, has enabled increased time resolution and the identification of new phenotypes associated with particular biological behaviors (Audet, J. et al. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 80, 393-404 (2002); El-Ali, J. et al. Nature 442, 403-411 (2006); Faley, S. L. et al. Lab Chip 9, 2659-2664 (2009); Wang, Z. H. et al. Lab Chip 7, 740-745 (2007); Figallo, E. et al. Lab Chip 7, 710-719 (2007)). These latter approaches indicate the power of higher throughput micro-culture systems, even though they lack desirable features including variable schedules of medium exchange.
Integrated microfluidic systems provide many advantages for live-cell microscopy tracking studies. These advantages include low reagent consumption, precise temporal control over growth conditions, and an ability to work with but not be limited to small numbers of input cells. Although these advantages have been well explored to analyze yeast and bacterial cell responses (Balagadde, F. K. et al. Science 309, 137-140 (2005); Taylor, R. J. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 3758-3763 (2009)), applications to mammalian cells are less developed. Whereas fluid- and cell-handling capabilities have been well established (El-Ali, J. et al. Nature 442, 403-411 (2006)), there have been relatively few reports of the application of programmable microfluidic systems to the long-term analysis of biological responses presumably owing to the difficulties in obtaining robust growth of mammalian cells in microfluidic devices. Previous mammalian microfluidic culture systems have been largely restricted to experiments with adherent cells incubated for short periods of time (hours) (Faley, S. L. et al. Lab Chip 9, 2659-2664 (2009); Wang, Z. H. et al. Lab Chip 7, 740-745 (2007)) in relatively large volumes of medium (Figallo, E. et al. Lab Chip 7, 710-719 (2007)) and/or maintained under high perfusion rates (Kim, L. et al. Lab Chip 6, 394-406 (2006); Korin, N. et al. Biomed. Microdevices 11, 87-94 (2009)). With a few notable exceptions (Lee, P. J. et al. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 94, 5-14 (2006); Hung, P. J. et al. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 89(1) (2005)), longer-term microfluidic mammalian cell culture has been characterized by reduced growth rates and even deviations from normal phenotypes (Korin, N. et al. Biomed. Microdevices 11, 87-94 (2009); Paguirigan, A. L. & Beebe, D. J. Integr. Biol. 1, 182-195 (2009)). Technical hurdles in available devices include dehydration, immobilization of nonadherent cells to facilitate medium exchange and recovery of the cultured cells for subsequent phenotypic or functional analysis. Furthermore, a microfluidic cell culture system that achieves culture conditions similar to those obtained in standard macrocultures, and allows for analysis of heterogeneous cell behaviour to generate differentiated cells both in vitro and in vivo would have practical utility.
Microfluidic devices made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a transparent and biocompatible silicone elastomer, have been widely used for cell-culture applications and provide high gas permeability for the efficient exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. However, PDMS is also permeable to some small molecules (Berthier, E. et al. Lab Chip 8, 852-859 (2008); Regehr, K. J. et al. Lab Chip 9, 2132-2139 (2009)) and allows for rapid transport of water vapor, which may result in dehydration (Heo, Y. S. et al. Anal. Chem. 79, 1126-1134 (2007); Hansen, C. L. G. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 12 8, 3142-3143 (2006)). The high surface-to-volume ratios characteristic of nano-volume culture chambers further promote dehydration of microfluidic devices. In addition, small hydrophobic molecules can diffuse in the elastomeric material and be depleted from the medium. These variations may lead to spurious biological responses, reduced growth rates and even cell death.